Blue Jackets rout the Avalanche by a 7-2 margin at home

The Blue Jackets rewarded us with a thrilling win on Tuesday night, as they steamrolled the Colorado Avalanche by a 7-2 score.

Sometimes, the luck just changes all at once.

This one was never in much doubt, right from the beginning. Mathieu Olivier scored on the very first shift, banging home a rebound of a Charlie Coyle shot to make it 1-0. That kicked off a special night from the third line of the Blue Jackets.

Ivan Provorov made it 2-0 just over 7 minutes later, blasting home a point shot on the power-play for his first goal of the season. The Avalanche took the momentum from this goal, and narrowed the lead to 2-1 just beyond the halfway mark of the period.

This led us to the dreaded second period, where we just knew it was all going to collapse. Only, on this night, it did not. All of the pent up frustration and bad second period mojo went in the other direction, with the Blue Jackets rattling off four goals to blow the game wide open.

Jake Christiansen scored at 4:19, winding up and firing a slap shot through traffic and into the net. Three minutes later, Cole Sillinger pounded his own rebound into the net, making it a 4-1 game. Coyle made it 5-1 with a power-play goal of his own at 12:03, also scored off of a rebound.

Just 39 seconds later, Valeri Nichushkin scored off of the rush against his former team to make it a 6-1 game, chasing Avalanche starter Scott Wedgewood from the crease. That gave Colorado another spark, which pushed them to a 5-on-3 power-play goal to cut the lead to 6-2 going into the third period.

The Jackets came out strong again in the third. Honestly, I thought this was the best period they played last night. Rather than playing down to a tired opponent, they continued to pour it on despite the big lead.

There was only one goal scored in the final frame. Coyle would get his second of the night at 11:21, dangling his way right down High Street and undressing Mackenzie Blackwood to make it 7-2.

Identity line came up big.

Matched up against the top line of the highest scoring team in the league last night, the "identity line" of Sillinger, Coyle, and Olivier gave the Blue Jackets one of the best performances we have seen in a long time. They finished with a combined 4 goals, 9 points, and a +11 rating on the night-sweeping the game's three stars voting.

As impressive as that trio was, we can't overlook the way the team played overall. I liked the way all four lines rolled and played the same way. They were winning pucks in the corners and feeding the point, which is where a lot of this team's offense has to come from.

This team put forth a full 60 minute effort, with everyone playing the same way. Even when Colorado took momentum, they just kept playing the same way. No panic, nobody trying to do too much. The results speak for themselves.

Secondary scoring, finally!

Maybe the biggest thing to take away from last night's game: this team scored 7 goals, and none of them came from their top line or their top defense pairing. Sure, Zach Werenski picked up a couple of helpers. But, the secondary guys finally broke through.

They aren't going to score like this every night, but if the Jackets can get some more productivity out of the guys that showed up on the scoresheet last night; they might just get this thing moving in the right direction.

We'll see on Thursday, when the Dallas Stars come to town. They play a much tighter checking game, as we learned on Saturday. For now, lets just enjoy the big win.

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